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Sunday, 11 December 2011

Sunspot Petit Pierre - unusual zonal pelargonium

Sunspot Petit Pierre

Sunspot Petit Pierre is, surprisingly, flowering well in my conservatory just now considering we are now into December and the recent days have not been exactly bright. However, this is one very bright plant, even the leaves are bright. The flowers are small and single, but of a brilliant pink with the top two petals fading to white at the centre. The plant is short jointed and the small leaves are a wonderful butterfly lime green with a darker centre. Miniature zonal Sunspot Petit Pierre was introduced in 1990 by Swanland Nurseries.

I tend to keep this plant in the conservatory rather than the greenhouse. It is a sport of KleineLeibling, a very old variety from Germany and was certainly around in the 1890's. This also is a miniature with single bright pink flowers and small bright green leaves. It has sported several varieties and over the years I have grown some of them.

Kleine Leibling is a haploid - meaning it has only half the normal chromosomes. It does not set seed, therefore it cannot be hybridised by pollen. The only way to increase these plants is vegetatively, i.e. by taking cuttings. It does sport very freely. Indeed, I have heard of some people having this plant with all the different sports on the same plant. I would imagine it would have to be a very large plant, and would be a wondrous sight!

Here in the UK, Kleine Leibling is sometimes referred to as Petit Pierre. It is known in the USA as Kleine Leibling or Little Darling, the translation from German.